Treasury Valley Struck with Yet another Phishing Campaign

Better Business Bureau (BBB) is cautioning residents in Treasure Valley (U.S) about an e-mail scam, which is circulating phishing messages, supposedly from Bank of the Cascades.

Raising alarm, the phishing message indicates "BOTC Alert" at the beginning of its text. Subsequently, it tells the recipient that his card beginning with 4266 can't be used any longer. Therefore, he/she needs to contact the Bank at (208) 473-2643 for making the card usable again, the e-mail states.

According to Wilfred Barrow from Meridian (U.S), the most astounding part of the e-mail was that the 208 number is of Idaho, as per the news published by NWCN.com published March 29, 2010.

According to Dale Dixon, President of Idaho BBB, serving Eastern Oregon and Southeast Idaho, it's the technology that has made it easy for scammers to set a number looking like a local one, as per the news published by NWCM.com on March 29, 2010.Dixon further states that people must understand that no bank, in this case 'Bank of the Cascades' will ever send an e-mail saying that it has deactivated or closed the recipient's account and that to make it usable again, he has to make a phone call. Consequently, the President advised that anyone receiving the e-mail must simply delete it from the inbox.

Earlier also, the same incident was noticed when the Office of Oregon Attorney General was alerting residents of a text e-mail supposedly from Bank of the Cascades, as reported by KMTR.com in the last week of March 2010. According to the Office, there've been a few dozen complaints regarding the scam coming in lately, with their origins being central Oregon and the Willamette Valley (U.S).

In this case too, the scam e-mail states that as per "BOTC alert," the recipient's card whose initial digits are 4266 can no longer be used. So, in order to reactivate it, the recipient must contact the Bank.

Security researchers, while remarking about this problem, stated that the most appropriate suggestion to the e-mail recipients is to avoid giving out their private financial details to anyone not known. Furthermore, anybody getting the e-mail must simply delete it. But, if he had already provided his information, then he must contact his bank immediately.